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The Abolition of Indian Indentured Migration to Mauritius C. Bates, M
The abolition of Indian Indentured Migration to Mauritius C. Bates, M. Carter & V. Govinden ABSTRACT The passing of a bill in 1917 in the Indian Legislative Council to abolish the use of contracts of indenture to recruit Indian migrants to work overseas has been hailed as a great achievement for Indian nationalists, helping to raise the status of Indians overseas, and improving the working lives of Indian labourers. However, there was a large gap between the passage of this bill and its implementation, which has been overlooked by historians. In Mauritius, the last ship carrying indentured workers arrived as late as 1924 and the last contract of indenture did not expire until 1929. The delay was justified in terms of allowing employers time to ‘adjust’ to the new ‘freer’ labour market conditions. In practice, this adjustment had already begun two decades earlier. Falling sugar prices and the growth of the settled population on Mauritius, had already led to a dramatic reduction in the number of indentured workers being recruited from India compared with the hey-days of sugar in the nineteenth century. Time- expired labourers and their descendants working on short or informal contracts had become the back-bone of the economy. In successive years in the 1900s no migrant ships set sail at all for Mauritius and a growing proportion of Indians who did arrive in the late 19th and early 20th century were traveling as ‘free passengers’. Indians had already found their niche within the economy and rather than look to the colonial government for recognition and enfranchisement, were busy enfranchising themselves. -
The Odys-S-Ey of I Ndentuf1e
The Odys-s-ey of I ndentuf1e No one who under"dand<; the hido7'ian ~ cmit would plead <;e7'iou<;ly that all g7'DUp<; <;hould 7'eceive equal time. We know m07'e about mme g7'DUp<; than othe7'<; not only becau<;e of the pred/ection ofhi<;to7'iam 07' the nature of thei7' mU7'Ce<; but frequently becau<;e we <;hould know m07'e about mme g7'DUp<; ofind'Vldual, in te7'm<; of thei7' imporlance and thei7' effect<; upon othe7'<;. The p7'Dblem i<; that hido7'iam have tended to <;pend too much of thei7' time in the company of the 'move7'<; and <;hake7'<; I and too hUle in the unive7'<;e of the mar<; ofmankind. I LClW1"enCe 'W. Levine 'Indians are ubiquitous', wrote the Calcutta newspaper The Statesman on 5 August 1980. According to it, there were then only five countries in the world where Indians 'have not yet chosen to stay': Cape Verde Islands, Guinea Bissau, North Korea, Mauritania and Romania. Today, according to one recent estimate, 8.6 million people of South Asian origin live outside the subcontinent, in the United Kingdom and Europe (1.48 million), Africa 42 the oJy~~ey of inJentu1'e (1.39 million), Southeast Asia (1.86 million), the Middle East (1.32 million), Caribbean and Latin America (958,000), North America (729,000), and the Pacific (954,000).2 The creation of this diaspora is a remarkable phenomenon. The resurgence of interest in overseas Indian communities, especially since the 1970s} has perhaps been inspired by the intensification of the great debate over the nature of slavery in the United States, the precarious political position of Indians in a number of former British colonies, and the increasing visibility of overseas Indians in the international labour and capital markets. -
Fijian Studies Vol 14, No
2 Fijian Studies Vol 14, No. 1 Documents 'Defactualization': A Brief Note on the Making Ganesh Chand 138 of Syria Wreck Rescue Record Fijian Studies The McGregor Report (On the Syria Rescue William McGregor 145 Operation [1884]) A Journal of Contemporary Fiji 'Letter from Alex Cockburn to Acting Colonial Alexander Cockburn 155 Secretary Dr. William McGregor Vol. 14 No. 1 Special Issue on History: Fact, Fiction, & Factions May 2016 Dr. William McGregor to Arthur Gordon, William McGregor 158 11 June 1884' Articles Of Journals and Journeys: Reflections Brij V. Lal 5 A Room to Write: End of Life without Fiction Subramani 25 The Tamarind Tree: Vignettes from a plantation Brij V. Lal 35 frontier in Fiji Faction, Fact and Fiction Doug Munro 51 Fact, Fiction & Faction: A Selection of Published Works Tombstone Blues: Is Josephine Earp's Memoir of Jefferson Decker 63 her Legendary Husband a Hoax? Fact, Fiction or Faction Pamela Rushby 67 Totaram Sanadhya’s Experience of Racism in Purushottama 71 early White Australia (a transcreated narrative) Bilimoria Indian Indentured Labourers of Guyana – Khalil Rahman Ali 89 A Historical Fiction Perspective Dialogue Hope and Disappointment: Nearly Impossible Satish Rai 99 Task of Searching Ancestral Roots in India The Fiji-Indian: A Complex Fate Satendra Nandan 109 Message from Fiji Media Watch: Agatha Ferei Furivai 127 World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2015 On Open Letter James Bhagwan 130 World Press Freedom Day Address, 2016 Shailendra Singh 133 Fijian Studies Vol. 14 No. 1 © Fiji Institute of Applied Studies 1 When no one is left to tell the story, would there be no history? On History: Fact, Fiction, & Factions Fijian Studies Vol. -
The Social Consequences of Control: Accounting for Indentured Labour in Fiji 1879 - 1920
This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Sharma, Umesh & Irvine, Helen (2016) The social consequences of control: Accounting for indentured labour in Fiji 1879 - 1920. Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, 13(2), pp. 1-31. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/91954/ c Copyright 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this ver- sion to appear here (http://eprints.qut.edu.au). Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Notice: Please note that this document may not be the Version of Record (i.e. published version) of the work. Author manuscript versions (as Sub- mitted for peer review or as Accepted for publication after peer review) can be identified by an absence of publisher branding and/or typeset appear- ance. If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-04-2015-0039 The social consequences of control: Accounting for indentured labour in Fiji 1879 – 1920 Umesh Sharma Department of Accounting, Waikato Management School, University of Waikato PB3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand. Phone +64-7-8562889; Fax: +64-7-8384332 E-mail: [email protected] Helen Irvine School of Accountancy, Queensland University of Technology GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Phone: +61-7-31382856; Fax: +61-7-31381812 Email: [email protected] Abstract Purpose: This is a study of the social consequences of accounting controls over labour. -
The Experiences of Indo-Fijian Immigrant Women in California
LOOKING BACKWARD, MOVING FORWARD: THE EXPERIENCES OF INDO-FIJIAN IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN CALIFORNIA A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Anthropology San José State University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Ambrita Nand December 2015 © 2015 Ambrita Nand ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled LOOKING BACKWARD, MOVING FORWARD: THE EXPERIENCES OF INDO-FIJIAN IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN CALIFORNIA by Ambrita Nand APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY December 2015 Dr. Chuck Darrah Department of Anthropology Dr. James Freeman Department of Anthropology Dr. Roberto Gonzalez Department of Anthropology ABSTRACT LOOKING BACKWARD, MOVING FORWARD: THE EXPERIENCES OF INDO- FIJIAN IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN CALIFORNIA This study helps address gaps in knowledge concerning the lives of Indo-Fijian immigrant women in California and offers a space for their voices to be heard. The subsequent chapters investigate the lives of five Indo-Fijian immigrant women and their experiences upon migrating to Modesto, California. Using a qualitative research approach, data were collected through participant-observations, semi-structured in-depth interviews and informal conversations. The data are presented as anthropological silhouettes, a form of life-writing (the recording of events and experiences of a life), which explores each individual woman’s experience with life in Fiji to her eventual migration and transition to life in California. The study reveals heterogeneity amongst the women’s experiences and perspectives as well as commonalities that arise in their collective experiences as Indo-Fijian immigrant women residing in the city of Modesto. Overall, the anthropological silhouettes reveal that migration has led to shifts in the women’s identities and their prescribed gender roles. -
A Majority of Fiji Indians Are the Descendants of the Indentured
Pacific Dynamics: Volume 1 Number 1 July 2017 Journal of Interdisciplinary Research http://pacificdynamics.nz Indo-Fijian Counter Hegemony in Fiji: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 A historical structural approach ISSN: 2463-641X Sanjay Ramesh University of Sydney Abstract Indo-Fijians make up about 37 per cent of Fiji’s current population and have a unique language and culture, which evolved since Indians fist arrived into Fiji as indentured labourers on board the ship Leonidas in 1879. Since their arrival in the British colony as sugar plantation labourers, Indo-Fijian activists led counter hegemonic movements against the colonial government during and after indenture in 1920-21, 1943 and 1960. Indo-Fijian activists demanded political equality with Europeans and constantly agitated for better wages and living conditions through disruptive strikes and boycotts. After independence, the focus of Indo-Fijians shifted to political equality with indigenous Fijians and access to land leases from indigenous landowners on reasonable terms; and these were ongoing themes in the 1972, 1977 and 1982 elections. However, Indo-Fijian counter hegemony took a new form in 1987 with the formation of the multiracial Fiji Labour Party and National Federation Party coalition government but indigenous Fijian nationalists and the military deposed the government and established discriminatory policies against Indo-Fijians which were dismantled by the Fiji Labour Party-led coalition government in 1999. However, indigenous nationalists regrouped and deposed the government in 2000, prompting another round of protests and resistance from Indo-Fijians. Using Gramscian conceptualisation of counter hegemony as disruptive protest, resistance and dissent, I argue that political mobilisation of indentured labourers and their descendants was aimed at restoring political rights, honour, self-respect and dignity lost during colonial and post-colonial periods in Fiji. -
1 Abstract: This Article Considers How the Experiences of South Asian
1 Abstract: This article considers how the experiences of South Asian indentured laborers in Fiji links the Pacific labor migrations of the late 19th and early 20th century to larger global movements of workers. In doing so, it offers one avenue through which to incorporate the Pacific into the study of world history. Keywords: South Asia, Indentured Labor, Fiji, Pacific Islanders, Plantations Short Title: Girmit Connections to Global Networks Girmit Connections to Global Networks: South Asians and the Pacific Labor Trade Recent efforts by Matt Matsuda as well as David Armitage and Alison Bashford have attempted to center the Pacific within a world-historical context.1 These are both welcome endeavors since there remains a distinct lack of consideration in world history for a region that makes up one-third of the planet’s surface. This omission of the Pacific by many world historians has a downstream effect, as it results in teachers being ill-equipped in terms of accessible ways to incorporate the Pacific into their world history classrooms. Consequently, it is not only necessary to incorporate the Pacific into world history in order to add more diverse experiences into world-historical narratives, but to do so in ways that enable teachers to build lessons or draw examples from for use in classroom settings. The migrations of contract laborers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries provide one avenue through which to connect the movements of Pacific peoples to a larger global network. As one of many boundary-crossing processes, migrations enable historians to approach the past in ways that complicate national and colonial narratives. -
The Repatriation Debate After the Abolition of Indenture |CIRCLE| Text Transcript
The Repatriation Debate After the Abolition of Indenture |CIRCLE| Text Transcript This is a text transcript of the webinar “The Repatriation Debate after the Abolition of Indenture” presented by the Canada India Research Centre for Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Guelph. The event was moderated by Ashna Jassi, PhD candidate, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph. It was recorded October 7, 2020. The guest speaker was Dr. Heena Mistry, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Training Specialist, Wilfrid Laurier University. Transcript: Ashna Jassi: Alright, perhaps it's a good time to get started and people can continue to join the meeting. First, I want to say hi to everyone. Welcome to our webinar! Thank you so much for joining us and I hope you're all keeping well and safe as we get into the fall months. My name is Ashna Jassi and I'll be chairing today's webinar with Dr. Heena Mistry. To give you a little bit more information about me, I'm a PhD candidate in social psychology at the University of Guelph. I'm also a graduate member of the CIRCLE Committee, and today's webinar is brought to us by CIRCLE, which is the Canada India Research Center for Learning and Engagement. CIRCLE was established in February 2020 at the University of Guelph and it aims to be an interdisciplinary nucleus in Canada for cutting edge research on the India and the Indian diaspora to showcase, advocate, catalyze and foster an equitable, respectful and sustained exchange of knowledge between Canadian and Indian scholars on complex and emerging, and unexplored topics related to sustainability and social and economic well-being. -
AD Patel and the Politics of Fiji
for A Vision Change AD Patel and the Politics of Fiji for A Vision Change AD Patel and the Politics of Fiji Brij V Lal THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY E PRESS E PRESS Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/ National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Lal, Brij V. Title: A vision for change : A.D. Patel and the politics of Fiji / Brij V Lal. ISBN: 9781921666582 (pbk.) ISBN: 9781921666599 (ebook) Subjects: Patel, A. D. |q (Ambalal Dahyabhai), 1905-1969. Fiji--Politics and government--20th century. Fiji--History. Dewey Number: 320.099611 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU E Press Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2011 ANU E Press Contents Preface to this Edition . .vii Prologue . ix Chapter 1: Retrospect . 1 Chapter 2: Child of Gujarat . 17 Chapter 3: Into the Fray . 35 Chapter 4: Company and Kisan . 57 Chapter 5: Flesh on the Skeleton . 81 Chapter 6: Interregnum . 105 Chapter 7: Fire in the Cane Fields . 129 Chapter 8: Towards Freedom . 157 Chapter 9: Shaking the Foundations . 183 Chapter 10: Independence Now . 213 Chapter 11: The End in Harness . 241 References . 251 Appendix: Telling the Life of A .D . Patel . 255 Index . 273 v Preface to this Edition This book was first published in 1997 after nearly a decade of interrupted research going back to the early 1980s. -
Ashutosh Kumar, Indian Nationalists and End of the Indentured Emigration, Occasional Paper Series No
Indians Against the Indenture System Introduction During colonial India more than a million Indian workers traversed across the oceans on the sugar plantations of European capitalists. This huge global migration of Indians was propelled by the British Government under the pressure of sugar speculators/planters who were depressed with the outlawing of slavery from the empire by the British Parliament in 1833. The British capitalists, who had their sugar plantations in the Caribbean, dominated the British Parliament at the time. Sugar, in the beginning of the nineteenth century became one of the most desirous ingredients in the British and European diet. Hence, sugar was at the heart of the global capitalism. Slaves who were deputed on the plantations did not choose to remain be on the plantations once the abolition was announced. The scheme of apprenticeship became unsuccessful. To mitigate the problem of labour on the sugar plantations, William Gladstone, a prominent planter parliamentarian and father of James Gladstone – who was the future Prime Minister and the British Liberal Party statesman, took a lead role in designing a new system of labour supply. For experiment, he tapped some hill coolies from Bengal in August 1834 and transported them to his plantations in Mauritius. India at the time was over populated. He found India as suitable place for plantation labour. The trial India labour gone between 1834 and 1837 under which an agreement had to sign by parties, labourers and planters. Around 7000 labourers reached Mauritius during the period. (Kumar, 2017:57). In 1837 the British parliament passed a law to legalize the introduction of Indian labourers under a system of contract, known as the indenture system. -
Nidān Volume 1, No. 1, Jul 2016
Nidān, Volume 1, No. 1, July 2016 ISSN 2414-8636 Nidān International Journal for Indian Studies July 2016 Durban, South Africa Published at University of KwaZulu-Natal Nidān, Volume 1, No. 1, July 2016 ISSN 2414-8636 Editors P. Pratap Editor-in- Emeritus [email protected] University of KwaZulu-Natal Kumar Chief Professor Associate University of Hyderabad, Ajaya K Associate [email protected] Editor India Sahoo Professor Associate Mousumi Roy [email protected] Independent Editor Kolkotta, India Chowdhury Scholar Editorial Board Members Member Institution Email Anand Singh (Professor) University of KwaZulu-Natal [email protected] Michel Clasquin (Professor) University of South Africa [email protected] Goolam Vahed (Professor) University of KwaZulu-Natal [email protected] T.S. Rukmani, (Emeritus Professor) Concordia University, Canada [email protected] William Harman (Emeritus Professor) University of Tennessee, USA [email protected] Knut A. Jacobsen (Professor) University of Bergen, Norway [email protected] Martin Bauman (Professor) Universität Luzern, Switzerland [email protected] Purushottama Bilimoria Melbourne University, Australia [email protected] Yoshitsugu Sawai (Professor) Tenri University, Japan [email protected] Ramdas Lamb (Professor) University of Hawaii, USA [email protected] Kim Knott (Professor) University of Lancaster, UK [email protected] Corinne Dempsey Nazereth College, USA [email protected] Hanna Kim Adelphi University, USA [email protected] Antoinette DeNapoli University of Wyoming, USA [email protected] Anup Kumar Cleveland State University, USA [email protected] Brij Maharaj University of KwaZulu-Natal, SA [email protected] Nidān, Volume 1, No. -
Hinduism Under Indenture
chapter' 13 The relgious situation ofour people is very unstable. This is because of the lack of relgious teachers and other dec/;cated people. As a rewk the hi' /nc/;ans are Me an unsteady boat caught in a whirlpool TotClT'am SClnCldhyCl What follows is extracts from a remarkable text by a remarkable individual, providing a rare contemporary description of and commentary on the first attempts to resuscitate religious and cultural life in Fiji's early Indian community. The site of the investigation is Fiji at the turn of this century, but the story that Totaram Sanadhya tells here will resonate in the early histories of Indian indentured communities elsewhere as well. Cast adrift from their familiar cultural moorings, trapped in indenture, illiterate and poor, they struggled against great odds to preserve fragments of their ancestral culture in alien surroundings for reassurance, comfort, security, and memory. It is a moving story of defiance and resistance. The project of cultural rejuvenation was fraught from the start. For one, 240 hinduism undeT' indent.ul"e as Totaram tells us, there were few teachers and religious books in Fiji. For another, many of the early priests were fraudulent men who preyed on the gullibility of their followers and, when caught, absconded to India or simply disappeared from sight. And then there were Christian missions which worked tirelessly but unsuccessfully to convert the Hindus and Muslims to their faith. Why these missions failed becomes clear in Totaram's encounter with the Rev. J. W. Burton, a Methodist missionary for whom Totaram had genuine affection but whose creed he refused to embrace.